With Good Reason

A clip of Kim Delevett talking about returning to Vietnam.

Native American historical leaders, Native recipes, and de-colonizing our diet!

In 1979, members of the KKK shot and killed five labor and civil rights activists in Greensboro, North Carolina. Aran Shetterly (Virginia Humanities Fellow), who is writing a book about the incident, says it still reverberates in the racial politics of Greensboro today. Also: The European philosophers of the Enlightenment argued that Europeans were civilized, but Africans were barbarians. Stefan W...

Chiquita L. Cross: Swing Low Sweet Chariot by With Good Reason

Charles Chico Wiley: Precious Lord

Christine Labuski and Nick Copeland (Virginia Tech) are the authors of “The World of Walmart: Discounting the American Dream.” They say there is a disconnect between the values that Walmart purports to champion and the reality of how it operates in our society. Plus: After 9-11, Brian Ulrich (Virginia Commonwealth University) has spent a decade photographing the landscape of consumerism across the...

This week we’re debuting a new podcast series called Broken Ground, produced by the Southern Environmental Law Center and hosted by Claudine Ebeid McElwain. Episode 1: The Kingston, Tennessee coal ash spill of 2008 and and its devastating consequences for hundreds of workers who had to clean up the toxic mess. Find more episodes at brokengroundpodcast.org. Later in the show: In 2010 the small, mos...

Some of the Vietnam War's most enduring legacies are the Vietnamese communities of America, made up of refugees who arrived en masse after the Fall of Saigon. In our final episode, we explore how these communities became a key to economic success for refugees, and how many still grappled with the complexities of gratitude, guilt, and silence. Members of the next generation share the delicate balan...

The end of the war and American withdrawal also marked the final days of a homeland for more than a million South Vietnamese people. We tell the story of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam as seen from both sides of the war.

The Fall of Saigon marked the bitter end of the American War in Vietnam and the loss of a homeland for hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people. We share stories of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops, along with heroic rescues and harrowing escapes of Vietnamese citizens. Then we take a glimpse into post-war life under communist rule in Vietnam. Later in the show: Some of the Vietnam War’s mo...

As robots become ubiquitous, will humans trust or fear them? James Bliss (Old Dominion University) is studying how people might interact with robots that act as military peacekeepers. Scott England (Virginia Tech) is part of a team that won an award for discoveries on Mars. Now he’s leading a new NASA mission to explore this lesser known upper atmosphere. A fourth-generation shipbuilder is helping...

An English professor who loves the Harry Potter books brings a few lucky students each year to London to visit the magical sites in the fantasy series. Alicia DeFonzo (Old Dominion University) leads them to the set of Hogwarts school and Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station for 3 weeks of study of magical creatures, potions, and herbology. And: The epic fantasy series Game of Thrones will return f...

Since it opened in 1993, millions of people have visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. How does their experience compare to that of visitors to other Holocaust museums, such as the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or the Jewish Museum Berlin? Jennifer Hansen-Glucklich (University of Mary Washington) is the author of Holocaust Memory Reframed: Museums and the Challenges of Representation...

What’s the role of poetry in the face of tragedy? Henry Hart (William and Mary) is Virginia’s poet laureate. He shares how poetry can emerge in the wake of loss. And: In college, Laura Bylenok (University of Mary Washington) was fascinated with genetic engineering. Now, she manipulates language, not DNA. Her recent book turns familiar forms into poetic laboratory experiments. Later in the show: To...

Stacey Houston (George Mason University) has spent his career looking at the complex web between education, health, and the justice system. He says kids who interact in some way with the justice system—even if it’s just living near a justice system facility—have worse health and educational outcomes. Plus: The laws affecting indentured servants and enslaved people were constantly evolving during t...

400 years ago, in 1619, the first Africans arrived in English-speaking North America. Cassandra Newby-Alexander (Norfolk State University) explores how we should commemorate that history and what’s at stake when we ignore it. Richard Chew (Virginia State University) explains how a British king’s fear of being beheaded impacted the expansion of slavery in the US colonies. Plantations in America’s S...

Kathryn Howell and Ben Teresa (Virginia Commonwealth University) are part of the RVA Eviction Lab which gathers data on eviction rates. They say high eviction rates destabilize communities, cause high turnover in student populations, and reduce community engagement and access to community networks and jobs. People who live on or near American Indian reservations are being denied access to consumer...

These days, due in large part to the work of Thomas Platts-Mills (University of Virginia), we know the sudden meat allergy is real and it’s caused by tick bites. And: Philosopher Jesse Kirkpatrick (George Mason University) says he’s less worried about human gene editing and more interested in how CRISPR technology can be used to enhance—or harm—the environment around us. Later in the show: In Japa...

Even as shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and Pose bring that culture into the mainstream, real-life gay bars and clubs are shuttering. DJ and Professor madison moore (Virginia Commonwealth University) argues that the club scene and the “fabulous” fashions on display there are radical spaces for queer and trans of color togetherness. Gregory Samantha Rosenthal (Roanoke College), Don Muse, and Peter Th...

Frank Newsome is an Old Regular Baptist preacher, singer of lined-out hymnody, and former coal miner in Appalachia. Virginia’s State Folklorist Jon Lohman (Virginia Humanities) describes Newsome’s musical tradition and its influence on bluegrass, gospel, and oldtime music. Travel to the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and you’ll find a place that’s not unlike southwest Virginia and Kentucky. There...

David Bearinger (Virginia Humanities) introduces stories of Virginian immigrant and refugees as part of a new exhibit at the Library of Virginia. Maureen Fitzgerald (William & Mary) speaks about what lessons can be learnt from the Irish immigrant experience. Cindy Hahamovitch (University of Georgia) compares the history and experience of guest workers in the United States to other countries.

Vilissa Thompson (LCSW, Founder and CEO of Ramp Your Voice!) spoke with us about why Harriet Tubman is a foundational figure for black disability activists today.

In part three of our series American Dissent, With Good Reason Associate Producer Kelley Libby talks with Dr. Michael Higginbotham (University of Baltimore) about a list of people—some well known, some not—whom he credits with seeing America for what it could be and then working toward making it so. Vilissa Thompson (LCSW, Founder of Ramp Your Voice!) explains how understanding Harriet Tubman as a...

It’s New Year’s resolution time. If you’re tired of thinking about your own health, maybe it’s time to turn to the kids. Amy Best (George Mason University) studies kids’ eating habits and says that part of getting them to make the right food choices means understanding what kids like about bad food. Bob O’Connor (UVA Health) has new guidelines that suggest young people should return to normal acti...

Craft distilleries are popping up in small towns and big cities across the country. In this special episode we share a recently revived 19th-century julep recipe and take you to an event that draws “women who whiskey.” We’ll do a tasting with Ironclad Distillery and Vitae Spirits and talk with a biologist who is making his own cordials and spirits from wild roots, berries, and mushrooms.